Research: The United Kingdom and the Italian Communist Party in the Seventies (1972-1979): was there a scare of the Italian Reds?
He earned a bachelor’s degree in History, Anthropology, Religions (specialization branch: Modern and Contemporary History) writing a thesis on Mikhail Gorbachev and the dissolution of the Soviet system, September 2016 at the Sapienza University of Rome. In January 2019, he earned a master’s degree in Historical Sciences (specialization branch: Modern and Contemporary History) with a dissertation on the British perception of the figure of Aldo Moro and of the role he played in the UK’s process of accession to the European Economic Community.
At the same university, he also obtained a 'master di II livello' in Parliamentary Institutions with a dissertation about the debate on the form of government in Italy and its constitutional reforms.
"The United Kingdom and the Italian Communist Party in the Seventies (1972-1979): was there a scare of the Italian Reds?" project abstract
Key words: Italian ‘communist question,’ British perspective, special relationship.
In the Seventies, according to the definition that Judt gave, the Western European political scenario began to fracture and fragment. The ‘glorious thirty’ were now fading, thus leaving room for an era that he defined “restless and doubtful.” Because of this, they appear as a strategic observation point.
In those years, many of the innovations implemented by the PCI, which was gradually approaching the government area, ended up being in the eye of the storm. The fulcrum of Berlinguer’s politics was the push towards détente, the concept of overcoming the two Cold War blocs through their recognition, as well as of democracy as an “universal value,” and acknowledgment of the role played by Italy’s international alliances. In the famous interview with "Corriere della Sera" on 9 June 1976, a few days before the political elections, Berlinguer recognized how the same political path of the Italian Communists was better guaranteed within the Western Alliance, in comparison with the limitations of sovereignty that had occurred in the Eastern Bloc.
The links between the proposal of the ‘historical compromise,’ to be achieved through collaboration and understanding between the popular forces of communist and socialist inspirations and those of catholic and democratic ones, and the line of international politics advocated by Berlinguer were evident. In fact, it was only through détente that the anti-communist discriminant could fall and thus, once the logic of the two blocs was abandoned, the political acceptance of the PCI in the government area.
In those years, the Italian ‘communist question’ was the subject of considerable international attention. Many, including governments and political forces, questioned the possibilities of communist participation in the executive. In the judgment of various US administrations, the PCI has become increasingly special observing. My project therefore, owing to that special relationship (later defined as “not-so-special” by Heath) that links the United Kingdom and the United States, wants to carry out an analysis of the British perspective towards the Italian ‘communist question.’ In addition, trying to understand if the British position was perfectly in line with that of the United States, given the peculiarities and distinctive features of each country and of the different institutional or party systems of each, to which we will refer from time to time, or rather if it was characterized by its own characteristics, sometimes even in contrast with that of the US.
The aim, in essential terms, is to reach a better understanding of the relationships established by the Italian Communist Party during the Seventies and, more specifically, of its image that was built across the Channel, as well as of the international institutional contexts in which it could operate, essential to fully reconstruct the historical events at that time. In those years, there was a change in the general perception of the party in Italy and abroad, which was intertwined with the fear of its participation in the government and the constant increase in its electoral approval. In the light of what has already been said, I intend to outline an analysis of the British perspective towards the Italian ‘communist question.’